What restrictions are available with Internet Explorer 5.01 Service Pack 1 and above?

A. With Internet Explorer (IE) 5.x, you have many options for limiting the actions that users can perform (see the table below for a complete list). You can apply these restrictions either to one user by setting the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Restrictions registry key or to all users by setting the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Restrictions registry key. If you set a restriction at both the user and the machine level, the machine level setting takes precedence. A value of 1 enables the restriction; a value of 0 disables the restriction.

To add a restriction, perform the following steps:

Start regedit.exe.

Go to either HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Restrictions (for a user) or HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Restrictions (for all users).

From the Edit menu, select New, DWORD value.

In the table, find the desired value, enter it for the Value name, and press Enter.

Double-click the new value and set it to 1 to enable the restriction. Click OK.

Close regedit.

Value name

Description

NoToolbarCustomize

Customize the toolbar.

NoBandCustomize

Customize the band.

SmallIcons

Force small icons.

LockIconSize

Change the icon size.

SpecifyDefaultButtons

Must be set to 1 if you are going to disable any of the default buttons, such as the Back button (Btn_Back).

Btn_Back

Back button and menu item

Btn_Forward

Forward button and menu item.

Btn_Stop

Stop button and menu item.

Btn_Refresh

Refresh button and menu item.

Btn_Home

Home button and menu item.

Btn_Search

Search button and menu item.

Btn_History

History button and menu item.

Btn_Favorites

Favorites button and menu item.

Btn_Folders

Folders Options command on the View menu.

Btn_Fullscreen

Full Screen command on the Edit menu.

Btn_Tools

Tools button and menu item.

Btn_MailNews

Mail and News button and menu item.

Btn_Size

Edit text size menu item.

Btn_Print

Print button and menu item.

Btn_Edit

Edit menu item.

Btn_Discussions

Discussion button and menu item.

Btn_Cut

Edit/Cut menu item.

Btn_Copy

Edit/Copy menu item.

Btn_Paste

Edit/Paste menu item.

Btn_Encoding

View/Encoding menu item.

NoWindowsUpdate

Removes Windows Update from the Tools Menu.

NoExpandedNewMenu

Expand new menus.

NoFileUrl

Run link to local file URL.

NoChannelUI

Channels user interface.

NoAddingChannels

Add channels.

NoEditingChannels

Edit channels.

NoRemovingChannels

Remove channels.

NoAddingSubscriptions

Add subscriptions.

NoEditingSubscriptions

Edit subscriptions.

NoRemovingSubscriptions

Remove subscriptions.

NoChannelLogging

Channel logging.

NoManualUpdates

Manual updates.

NoScheduledUpdates

Update schedules.

NoUnattendedDialing

Unattended dialing.

NoChannelContent

Channel CDFs will be delivered but without content. Overrides the per-channel settings.

NoSubscriptionContent

Subscriptions will be monitored for changes, but content will not be downloaded.

NoEditingScheduleGroups

Edit schedule groups/create new ones.

MaxChannelSize

Maximum size in KB of channel elements in the cache. Overrides channel maximums the user sets.

MaxSubscriptionSize

Maximum size in KB of subscription elements in the cache. Overrides subscription maximums the user sets.

MaxChannelCount

User can't add more than n channels. Not applied retroactively. Administrators can push more than n. N may not be zero.

MaxSubscriptionCount

User can't add more than n subscriptions. Not applied retroactively. Administrators can push more than n. N may not be zero.

MinUpdateInterval

Channels and subscriptions can't be updated more often than this number of minutes.

UpdateExcludeBegin

Number of minutes from midnight where schedule changes are excluded. Zero is not valid.

UpdateExcludeEnd

End of a range in which to exclude schedule updates. May be lower than UpdateExcludeBegin.

UpdateInNewProcess

Subscriptions will be updated in a separate process, making the system more stable but slightly slower.

MaxWebcrawlLevels

Site subscriptions will be limited to MaxWebcrawlLevels - 1. Zero disables the restriction.

Discuss this Article 7

Michael Bell (not verified)

on Feb 13, 2001

In the description for NoHelpMenu it says that 'Help menu item (IE only). (There is a known problem with this not working with IE 5.01 SP1, and a fix is available.)'
What is the fix for this ? Can you please let me know where I can find this
Thanks
Michael

All the registry entries DO NOT map to this registry key. Some of these keys need to be mapped to other locations. I spent a lot of time tracking down which went to where. You may want to review and revise this article.

I have tried making some of these modifications (Btn_Back, Btn_favorites, Btn_Size) on a windows 2000 machine with IE5.00.3103.1000 SP1, however they seem to have no effect. I went to microsoft.com and upgraded to the latest version (5.5) but the settings still had no effect. Can these restrictions be added to win2k? btw, your site is fantastik, thanks for all the helpful tips.

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